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Tag: work

I saw that ridiculously useless wood purchased with all intentions to build a decent garden structure sitting in my room day after day. “One day I’ll build something with it. I already have the saw, I just have to get the right nails for once.” I didn’t even really know then what else I wanted to build, I just wanted to create something new and unique, but for myself.

Recently, I’ve really wanted an antique telephone bench or gossip bench, but why buy when it seems simple to build. I started looking at the wood, realizing that the cuts I had already made with the saw could be worked with if I put in a little more effort. I already had wood glue from a book repurposing craft ( yes I know that was the wrong glue for that).

First, I cut rectangle holes inopposite edges of a bucket, I figured an easy way to keep my wood shavings contained while also having a sturdy “work bench”. I began sawing wood around 1am, not sure if the neighbors could hear. If so, they probably wondered all night long about what I was doing in my house. Once I had the pieces cut, I started gluing, not realizing it takes 30-60 minutes to dry and you have to keep pressure on it. I worked with what I had in the house at 6am to put weight on the pieces: candles, a chair, heavy blocks of wood, whatever there was. Working this way made Hobby Lobby’s 9am open time quite reasonable. Having found a gift card from Christmas, I went to buy a clamp, some paint, a cute kid’s chair that looks like big pencils that I could use pieces of, and a gift for my mom (random and not part of the late night build, but important because she’s important). When I got home, I worked hard to glue the remaining pieces together with the clamp, having to saw new pieces as I changed the design.

Altogether, the materials used include the following:

– old wood scraps

– old classroom supplies: 2 clipboards and a plastic stand up paper organizer

– an old cork board

– two old throw pillows

– the kid’s chair I bought

– a wooden arrow decoration

– two old books

– a power strip

– lots of cardboard

– lots of hot glue

– lots of gorilla glue

– purple $0.50 craft paint

– a never used makeup brush for painting

The final project is a 2 foot by 1 foot space that fits the paper organizer as a desk on one side and a cushioned chair space next to it.

For the desk, I turned the paper organizer on its side and reinforced it with clipboards on either side measured and cut to the shape of the organizer. The space underneath the desk has a mounted power strip where you can plug in any charging cords as you need them. As a type of “armrest” next to the desk sits the top part of the child’s chair (two wood pieces that look like pencil tips). This provides even more space to place or store things underneath the desk.

The chair space next to the desk was created using the seat park of the kids’ chair, 2 old throw pillows as cushions, and 2 old books painted and mounted on wood and cardboard to be an aesthetic armrest.

Reinforcing the back of the bench is a wooden frame that I built as well as an old corkboard, creating a space above like a headboard for the decorative wooden arrow/spear. The wood parts of the chair back were painted to match the other parts of the bench.

Supporting the weight of the above are the 4 eraser-end pencil style leg stands from the same kids’ chair.

All in all, I’m proud of my work, which I’ve added a photo of, and I just wanted to share it with others.

I just recently sat down and wrote for 30 minutes. I never once felt like it was going to break, and it was very comfortable for being so small. The second cushion is not pictured in the photo because it makes it so you can’t see the structure of the piece. There are a few things I’d add or do and probably will, the first being finishing or cleaning up the paint job, and then taking better photos of the various aspects.